Seinen Kakumei Utena: Gorgeousshutin's Episode Commentary
by gorgeousshutin
Summary: Because it's fun to channel Ikuhara ;-)
1. Chapter 1

Utena and Penguindrum characters belong to their various owners.

**WARNING: **Parts of this work contain** depictions of transphobia, **controversial shoujo fantasy **trans situation **that** in no way reflects real life trans people, **and** misogynistic **magic attack leading to **forced masculinization**

Note: Because … you know, it's fun to channel Ikuhara ;-)

* * *

1: " **Flowers Adrift** "

(much of the following text is modified from Ikuhara's English Commentary for Episode 1)

A word before we start: Seinen — a gender neutral term for "young adult" — was originally intended to be a fanfic about Utena and Co all getting mundane jobs ten years after the revolution, with their revolution being a revolt against the tyrannical CEO-figure Akio becomes.

During the process of getting from the story idea to the actual writing itself, I felt the need to test the water with the existing Shoujo Kakumei Utena Fandom. And so, I opened this "fic idea" thread. There, I proceeded to convey the idea of the fic to fans, in a way that I had hoped would generate interest.

It was mostly an "it's something like this" type of thing. And in fact, it got the gist across, and the mild interest shown by a few people gave me the mental green light to start on writing.

However, when I finally started on the first part/chapter/episode, I was plagued with worry. Suddenly I was brooding over what the story's originality really was. Originality is key in creating an interesting fanfic in an aging fandom. A unique individuality. A story no one has ever thought to write before. There was this pressure of "I have to make this a fanfic with a story unlike any before it. That's the only way fans will want it."

I decided to focus more on the misogynic nature of the "Duel called Revolution". And that prompted a switch to flip in my mind. Within myself, I could sense that this would be a special story, if only I change it to be one where Utena got forced-masculinized by the Swords of Hate. But, it was hard to explain this new direction's "specialness" to the fandom before it gets published.

And so, I kept my plans to change the story completely to myself, did the new story outline, and wrote out the modified Part I: "Flowers Adrift ".

The feedback was surprisingly good. People were all like "I love how Juri and Shiori gets shipped! Powerful!Anthy FTW!" They had, of course, no idea about how Utena will be showing up as a "man" down the road. So … all the while I had these pangs of guilt, like I was deceiving someone.

And then.

I came up with this idea to make Seinen a crossover with Penguindrum, a (then) new Ikuhara show that had incited mixed reactions from Utena fans.

Even as I yet again modify the story outline, I could already envision that only possible reaction the coming parts will incite from readers:

"Huh? What the f_k?"


	2. Chapter 2

Because it's fun to channel Ikuhara ;-)

* * *

2: "**The Fruits That Could Have Been**"

(much of the following text is modified from Ikuhara's English Commentary for Episode 2)

"Let us share the fruit of fate!"

– Oginome Ringo, Mawaru Penguindrum

While Googling for new Utena stuff in 2012, I chanced upon this (gasp! finally!) new Ikuhara show.

Being impatient, I watched the final episode first. Completely lost, I didn't know what the show was on about.

However, that particular quote from Ringo stuck with me. One day long afterwards, after I've since gone through the entire series, I again revisited that intriguing Final: the climax tying up the multiple convoluted storylines together.

Sharing the fruit of fate is sharing the burdens of life, this I can understand. I can even see right through Ikuhara's thinly-veiled references to Japanese society's assignment of collective guilt upon known criminal's innocent relations: Takakura Himari's illness/curse vanishes by way of her becoming "Ikebe" Himari; Shouma and Kanba –- both still Takakuras –- were given a "reincarnation" a.k.a. a fancy metaphor of their rejection by society.

Say, the boys walking into the irrationally present starry skies look rather … shadowy, don't they?

Shadows … starry sky akin to that shown in a planetarium …

Alright: Shadow Boys it is then!

A reader and I discussed my decision to make Seinen a Penguindrum crossover time and again, because I was obsessed with the idea that it could make for a "better" story. Plus, I figured crossing a Utena fic with Penguindrum would get more people to want to read this (I was wrong: apparently, the two Ikuni fandoms don't really crossover that much). Most importantly, the story potential in using the in-series facts in Utena to explain the mysteries in Penguindrum — and vice versa — greatly intrigued me. The Utena storyline and the Penguindrum storyline are thus tied up together in this manner.

Male!Utena is another draw to read this fanfic. In the initial stages of planning, I thought of the character as someone who self-identifies as a trans man. However, I later decided to depict Male!Utena simply as someone who self-identifies as Utena –- not male or female, but simply a "person" with a modified body. But what did this even mean? I would agonize over the expression of Male!Utena for the entire fic.


	3. Chapter 3

3: "**Prince, Interrupted - Prelude**"

(much of the following text is modified from Ikuhara's English Commentary for Episode 4)

"Memory" in Shoujo Kakumei Utena is a person's lingering attachment to the world they can never get back; the nostalgic world they can never return to again. Its true influence on the Seinen characters' many actions will become clear during the climax of the fanfic.

From where I'm looking, SKU's Nemuro Hall is basically a prototype for MPD's Child Broiler: both turn humans into fuel for a society to function. Nemuro Hall, which fueled Ohtori Academy's magical mechanisms, sure sounds like a prototype for the Child Broiler affecting all of Japan. The Ends of the World is, of course, the obvious beneficiary from both structures.

RE: Kozue. I made such a radical departure in the second half of this part that you might well ask yourself, "Is this even the same character?" I did it to solidify the position of Kozue's character. Because, even in the TV canon, Kozue was always something of a contradictory character: a jaded 13 yr old girl performing blatantly immature actions with seemingly mature mannerisms. So, my 23 yr old Kozue is likewise a seeming contradiction: a defensive shrew to Miki, while also a warm "Neesan" to the halve-aged/shadowed Takakura Brothers (who reminded her of the baby birds she saved in the series, and ultimately, her own lost childhood).

Is that all right? Sure it's all right.

I decided to operate according to the rule "Never give a character only one façade to their personality." I didn't want to reject "fun" on the grounds of "I can't get this character to appear uniformly consistent."


	4. Chapter 4

Because it's fun to channel Ikuhara ;-)

4: "**Prince, Interrupted – Main I**"

(much of the following text is modified from Ikuhara's English Commentary for Episode 34)

Has his modified body become a sanctuary to allow Male!Utena an escape from his painful past with Akio?

Or, is the memory of his girl hood friendship with Anthy the only thing holding up the multilated Victor's sanity?

Were the Swords of Hate to him parts of his mental defenses, or simply sources of agony?

The "Revolutionary Young Adult" is born.

This is also the chapter where I've really started to merge the worlds of SKU and MPD.

The Nemuro Research on Eternity is given this "Fate Train Theorem side project" by yours truly. In this story; the research on Fate is what the student assistants had kept (largely) secret from Professor Nemuro.

I made it so that this leader of the hundred boys – - the one who lied to Nemuro about the Rose Signet being a fashion item — was the one who headed the Fate Research. His name was to be Inoue Tsukiichi. Tsukiichi, as in that name Alan Harnum gave Chairman Mr. Ohtori in his classic epic.

That's right. Inoue Tsukiichi would become Mr. Ohtori Tsukiichi after marrying Ohtori Hoshimi. These two would later have a daughter by the name of Ohtori Kanae.

And yes, Jaquemart is indeed one of my all time favs.


	5. Chapter 5

Because it's fun to channel Ikuhara ;-)

5: "**Prince, Interrupted – Main II**"

(much of the following text is modified from Ikuhara's English Commentary for Episode 19)

Why is it that out of all the Duelists, it is Wakaba who got to head the battle against the Swords of Hate?

In the original show, a side character like her was definitely designed to remain largely out of the core action. However, this is Seinen Kakumei Utena, and the Prince, Interrupted arc no less. All characters brought in will have major roles to play.

There are many things in this world that don't go the way you want them to. But even so, the onion girl from the TV series is trying to be someone special. She's fighting.

Isn't that exactly the story that the Black Rose arc –- and ultimately, Shoujo Kakumei Utena — is trying to tell? That's why I've prepared a battle scene here focusing on the girl ( a woman now) willing to fight for what she wants when given the chance.

Now then, what's to become of that forgettable onion boy: the one who's decided to just pray for his onion princess' happiness from the sidelines?

A decade is more than enough to change anyone and anything.

On that note, just what do you think will become of a smug playboy brat like Touga ten years down the road?

Do you know? Do you know? Do you ever wonder …?


	6. Chapter 6

Because it's fun to channel Ikuhara ;-)

6: "**Prince, Interrupted – Main III**"

(much of the following text is modified from Ikuhara's English Commentaries for Episodes 11 & 12)

When online, I tried to speak the truth always.

"Educate yourself!" the owner of this forum said to me one day in authoritarian tones. They then said something along the following lines:

" … cause I can't be bothered to. I ain't gonna cite valid sources for my argument to prove how you're wrong, cause I'm really not interested in having a real debate with you. I've simply quoted something you said in the private section of the forum, then started a new thread bashing you over at the public section, all to shame you publicly. This is because you, an ordinary poster, has posted something that give my forum sidekick the butthurt. Sure, it was forum sidekick who dropped the drama bomb and violated forum rules, but I'll let them off the hook, cause sidekick is "special". Not so for you, ordinary poster stepping on the wrong toes."

Also, apparently my "speaking the truth" means to them "inciting drama bombs in my orderly forum." And so, I became "someone they will ban once they found proof that I have not memorized each and every line of their forum rules by heart."

There's a certain natural law that goes, "To gain something, you must lose something." There's nobody in this world who gains everything. Otherwise, there would be people who could live forever.

That is something the forum owner, with their stubborn inclination to play favorites for the "special" posters, are blind to.

That's why they lose what's important to them, namely forum traffic.

That which is "special" can often lead to ruin.

RE: Male!Utena's Triumph

Someone online made this hilarious claim that Male!Utena's triumph in this part is his "turning into a very handsome cis man". Said someone had also admitted to have only "skimmed" the story for trans elements, instead of actually "reading" it through.

A triumphant prince isn't "someone who looks cool"; nor, of course, is a prince "a woman who becomes a man."

A "prince" is "someone who can exercise power."

What had been holding Male!Utena back from exercising Dios' power — that which he earned from the Final Duel — throughout the past decade?

And what brought this great power out of him now?

Something happened here that caused Utena to stopped hiding behind the agony of failure; something that touched his heart, and "moved" him back into action …

–It's "friendship", perhaps.


End file.
